Irene Stacy undergoes big changes
Within the past six months, Irene Stacy Community Mental Health Center has gotten a new executive director, a new medical director and a new board president.
And each of those people says the facility, which provides outpatient and residential services to individuals with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, and substance abuse disorders, has a new attitude.
“Anytime you have an entity that's been around for more than 50 years, there's an occasional need to reboot, re-energize and redirect,” said Jill Roth of Butler, who took the helm of the 12-person board of directors this spring.
Roth, who retired as co-owner of the Travel Centre of Butler, had a half dozen years of experience on the Irene Stacy board before taking a lengthy hiatus. She rejoined the board two years ago and became president in March, when the outgoing president resigned.
Only weeks earlier, on Feb. 21, the board fired its executive director of less than a year, Steve Laubacher.
No one from the facility talked about why Laubacher, who replaced retiring executive director of 38 years Roger Kelly, was let go.
However, it was no secret the facility had financial issues of running a deficit and that Laubacher had been tasked to resolve those issues. They had not been resolved by the time Laubacher left.
The facility still is in the process of reviewing its finances.
“We went through two accounting and three electronic health records (due to software upgrades) in one year,” Roth said. “We still have some bumps in the road we need to get over, but I see nothing but good things in the future.”
With Laubacher's departure, Natalie Ross, then director of programming, was named the interim executive director.
Earlier this month, the board decided to drop the interim from her title and extended her a three-year contract that has not yet been formalized, said solicitor Andrew Menchyk.“The board has been very satisfied with her management of the center since having taken over as interim executive director,” Menchyk said.Ross, who has a master of arts degree in criminology from Indiana (Pa.) University, began her professional career as a clinical therapist at an outpatient substance abuse treatment facility in Monongahela, Washington County.She then held a forensic intensive case management position at Mon Yough Community Services in McKeesport, Allegheny County, where she began to work with mentally ill individuals in the criminal justice system to transition them back into the community upon release from jail.This position, she said, became a stepping stone to the Allegheny County Forensic Support program, which was a county run program also assisting clients who suffered from mental illness become more productive citizens upon release from jail.For a dozen years, Ross was the treatment supervisor for the Allegheny County Drug Court and eventually was granted additional management responsibilities of supervising the treatment staff for the Allegheny County DUI Court and Mental Health courts.In that role, Ross managed and budgeted a $1.2 million state grant that was awarded to the county to pay for treatment services for those individuals within the drug and DUI courts.Ross also has taught classes at ICM School of Business and Medical Careers in Pittsburgh, and she has been a field instruction faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.Ross was a long-standing member of the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative Association that focuses on re-entry of offenders into society while ensuring public safety and reducing recidivism.She first came to Irene Stacy last fall as director of programs, administering the clinical programs.Ross said she looks forward to leading Irene Stacy into the future.“In the last five months since I've been given this opportunity, I've been working diligently to reduce costs and to improve spending habits by consolidating services, decreasing waste, and improving efficiency in how we deliver services while maintaining the same level of quality care to the clients that we serve,” she said.
Ross lives in Evans City with her husband, John, and their two children.“I have a personal interest and investment in Irene Stacy's success in this community,” she said.One of the duties Ross was tasked with as interim director was finding and hiring a medical director, Menchyk said.The center hired psychiatrist Dr. Patricia Jarrett, who has been practicing at Irene Stacy for a half-dozen years.Jarrett got her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and her M.D. from the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.Her psychiatry residency was completed at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, and she spent a year in specialty training at the Allegheny Neuropsychiatric Institute.She has served as a medical director for the Women's Unit at Western Psychiatric as well as the medical director for Consult Liaison Services at five of the UPMC Hospitals in the Pittsburgh area.Jarrett said, “Irene Stacy has a legacy of delivering quality clinical care. We are in a period of revitalization to not only meet that standard of care, but to exceed it.“Under new leadership we are expanding the number of clinical providers to meet the increasing demands of the Butler community. We are developing new clinical programs to provide support to our clients both throughout life and in-depth at time of greatest need.”
